


Inspired, Desired, Required.

by noodlerdoodler



Series: Of Yellow and Purple [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Lonely Eridan, M/M, Morning After, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Quadrant Confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 12:41:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4877227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noodlerdoodler/pseuds/noodlerdoodler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At least, he assumes he's in a better mood, because Sollux slides in and his arms sneak their way around Eridan's chest and squeeze him tightly. Tight enough that it hurts, in fact, making Eridan inhale sharply, and then Sollux's hands slide down to grope at him for a good moment before he's satisfied and he just slumps against him.</p>
<p>"I hate you." Sollux insists, even though his face is pressed between Eridan's shoulder blades and his hands are now busy tracing the lines of his gills, teasing at them. It tickles, a tad arousing, making Eridan squirm away from his touch but he keeps at it. After a few minutes, he grows used to the rough fingers in his most sensitive place and even starts to enjoy it. Still, he can't say anything like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inspired, Desired, Required.

The first thing that he becomes acutely aware of when he wakes up is the fact that he's surprisingly warm considering his clothes seem to be missing. Yes, despite the fact he seems to have stripped down even past his underwear before falling into bed- something that he only does in the hottest perigrees of the year- he's very warm and it makes a nice change from feeling so cold all the time. He makes a content kind of noise and turns over, mumbling something about how deliciously warm it was, and hoping that the feeling of warmth stays with him. He just stays there, drifting between sleep and waking and comfortable. 

Warmth aside, his mind begins to wander to other matters; as he slowly drifts back to consciousness, he becomes aware of the fact that he is feeling sore. Not only are his back and neck are sore from the way his bed is dipping uncomfortably in several places that he doesn't remember- maybe he'd broken it some time?- but his nook is also sore, the way it used to get after pailing with Vriska. She was always so rough with him, toying with him, breaking him. There was none of the gentle aftercare that he had longed for and she normally left him lying in a pool of his own slurry, maybe kicking him the nose before leaving with a harsh laugh. 

Yes, his nook was ever so sore and his clothes were missing, which could only lead to one conclusion. He must have slept with somebody last night and he muses over the thought without so much as wincing. Over the years, he's slept with a handful of people, normally total strangers, but they're only ever one night stands. He's never committed to a real relationship, not since the flop with Feferi and then Vriska, not even now long after they won that stupid game and ended up all over this confusing mismatched troll and human world. He doesn't even keep contact with most of his old friends anymore- if he was so kind as to call them "friends".

As he shifts ever so slightly, there's a soft grunt from somebody else's mouth and that's when it occurs to him that whoever he pailed with is still here. That explains the warmth that's wrapped around him, so hot that it's beginning to burn his fragile seadweller skin, and it isn't long until he begins to panic. He's slept with a lowblood- nothing more than a filthy commoner- and their skin is really beginning to burn him, hot as a heater. As long as he can, he stays still and tries to ignore the steadily growing pain, especially against his chest. That's where they seem to be resting their head, whoever it is, pressed up against Eridan and their limbs entangled. But, eventually, the heat becomes too much and he has to kick the other troll away. 

They make a sound of discomfort- a sort of "oof" sound- as they're kicked and there's a shifting in the mattress as they sit up. He can easily recognise the sound of whoever it is fumbling for their glasses on the bedside table and then, pushing them on. He takes in the soft hiss of breath, that sounds almost irritated, before Eridan is shoved firmly off the bed. He doesn't have time to react before he's plummeting over the edge and hitting the cold ground with a smack. Anything that didn't already hurt, definitely hurts now. And he shivers because lying on the cold floor is incredibly uncomfortable compared to the warm bed and he's already missing having the other troll wrapped around him. 

"Asshole." lisps a tired voice and Eridan freezes up, because it's a voice that he recognises all too well. It's a voice that he heard before during the game, yelling as he slaughtered them with his wand on a weird murder high. It's a voice he's heard yelling in pain, it's a voice that remains with him in his nightmares that he gets on the nights he sleeps alone. No, no, no... This must be another bad dream... Wake up... Wake up...

He pushes himself up off the ground and onto his knees, blinking his eyes open. Fumbling around on the ground and then the bedside table, his glasses are nowhere to be found, and as he squints at the room he discovers that this isn't, in fact, his hive. This hive is nowhere near as attractive as his own and doesn't seem to have any decent heating, which is probably why Eridan is so cold without his lowblood to keep him warm. His glasses forgotten, he narrows his eyes at the pissblood on the bed; not just because he's pissed but also because he can't really see without his glasses. He can only see the blurred outline of a naked yellowblood sat on the bed and possibly scowling at him. He can see the bright eyes better than anything, the mismatched red and blue shining at him. 

"Sollux Captor." He's tempted to add 'my old nemesis' but refrains, "We meet again." 

"Can you save the stupid act for later and get the fuck out of my hive?" Even without his glasses, it's easy to tell that Sollux is just as pissed as him about these circumstances and he watches him adjust his mismatched glasses jealously. He probably doesn't even need those stupid glasses to see. 

"I fully intend to get the fuck out of your ugly hive, as soon as I have my clothes back." There's no way that he's going to leave his high fashion clothes laying around the hive of a lowblood, where they could get his filthy scent on them, "And my glasses. I can't see shit." 

"All this time, I thought they were just a fashion thing." Sollux says, coolly; there's a creaking sound as he stands, sliding off the bed, and begins to scuffle across the hive towards the ablution block. At least, he presumes that he would be heading to the ablution block because Sollux seems to be plastered in a mix of their purple and yellow genetic fluid. How Eridan got away with only a little yellow smeared on his chest and thighs, he'll never know. 

"Where the fuck are you going?" Eridan demands, watching the hunched over form get blurrier as Sollux moves further away from him. It's only as Sollux turns and he thinks he spots two writhing yellow bulges knotted and twisted that it occurs to him that those were inside of him last night. If he closes his eyes, he can even remember the feeling of them squirming inside of him and how much it had stretched his nook... No wonder he feels so sore this morning if he took both of those hideous things inside of him. 

"I'm going to take a shower and get your filthy stench off me." Sollux says, bluntly, his lisp mangling half the words in his sentence, "You smell like rotten fish and now, I smell like rotten fish and it's fucking disgusting." He turns again and he's almost at the door by the time Eridan calls after him again, a little frantically. He reaches for him but it's hopeless because the other troll is on the other side of the room and doesn't seem to care about him. 

"Sol, you can't just ditch me here! I need your help!" It's almost a whine. 

"Help yourself!" Sollux heads out across the hallway and Eridan hears the sound of a door being slammed shut and a shower being turned on. With a loud huff, he crawls his way back onto the lumpy bed and grumbles at how it dips and creaks underneath his weight. He doesn't know what the hell he's going to do if he can't find his glasses; everything is basically a blur without them. His eyesight has always been terrible on land, like most seadwellers', and there's no way he can get home without being able to fucking see. 

He spends at least five minutes just sulking to himself about how unfair everything is and about how Sollux Captor is a total fucking asshole for abandoning him, before he actually kicks the covers off the bed in search of his glasses. Much to his annoyance, he doesn't find them anywhere. He does find a shirt but as he brings it to his nose to sniff- god, he's turning into Pyrope, he's got to find his glasses and get his sight back quick before he starts licking people- he discovers that it isn't his shirt. It's definitely one of Sollux's, smells disgusting and he tosses it away. Gross. But maybe some of his clean shirts will be better. That in mind, he slides his way out of the bed this time and stumbles over to the dumb pissblood's closet. 

Though he does check to see if it will fit- and it doesn't- Eridan decides that wearing Sollux's underwear would be too weird so he doesn't even bother with it. Instead, he opts not to wear any and takes a pair of Sollux's hideous grey sweatpants instead, which he can tug on easily. They're hideous but pretty soft in the way that cotton clothes that have been through the wash a million times are and Eridan finds himself enjoying the feeling of it against his skin. He also finds an awful shirt that he's sure has some video game logo on it or something but at least it's black and not Sollux's awful blood colour. He pulls it on. 

The taller male's clothes hang awkwardly off his shorter and curvier frame (Sollux has no figure whatsoever, he's like a twig or something) but that's acceptable and he heads back to the room to look some more for his glasses. Eventually, he does discover them under the bed, a little cracked but they've seen worse days, and pushes them on so that he can get a better look at his surroundings. As he suspected, Sollux Captor's hive is pretty much a shithole with his computer crap stacked around the place and his laundry basket spilling onto the floor. It's enough to make Eridan turn his nose up in disgust as he crosses the room and heads down the hall. The shower is still on behind the locked ablution block door. 

Deciding that he's in need of coffee, Eridan decides to venture down the hallway and check out the other blocks. The first one he stumbles upon looks like a scruffy kind of living block, more computer and bees than actual room. The second room seems to be another living block but this one focused entirely on gaming. He snorts at what a fucking loser Sollux Captor is, glad to see that even after all these years, Captor is clearly still a fucking nerd that lives alone. Third time lucky, he pushes open the door at the end of the corridor and finds the food preparation block. It's worryingly scarce and there's no sign of any coffee; only stacks of red and blue energy drinks and opened packets of chips and Honey Loops spilling out of their packets. 

It's enough to make him sigh. But after rummaging around the various cupboards, he finds the right ingredients to make pancakes and decides that's what he'll make. Enough for himself and for the asshole that he slept with, as a kind of "thank you for sticking your bulges in my nook and having pretty much the best sex I've had in a while with me" present. From what he can vaguely remember of last night, the pailing was pretty great. He gets to work quickly, hearing the shower shut off somewhere and the padding of footsteps in the hive.

"Did I give you permission to go through my kitchen?" Sollux says, when he makes an appearance in the doorway. He's put on some old pants and a shirt at least, so Eridan doesn't have to look at his scrawny body. His hair is damp from the shower and stuck to his forehead in a way that's oddly appealing; Eridan notes that it's a little longer than when he last saw it and that Sollux looks tireder, shadows under his stupid, glowing eyes. 

"Or my closet for that matter?" Sollux adds, as he takes in the sight of Eridan in his clothes flipping pancakes and dares to approach. Luckily, the shower seems to have done good things for his bad mood because he doesn't seem as angry anymore. At least, he assumes he's in a better mood, because Sollux slides in and his arms sneak their way around Eridan's chest and squeeze him tightly. Tight enough that it hurts, in fact, making Eridan inhale sharply, and then Sollux's hands slide down to grope at him for a good moment before he's satisfied and he just slumps against him. 

"I hate you." Sollux insists, even though his face is pressed between Eridan's shoulder blades and his hands are now busy tracing the lines of his gills, teasing at them. It tickles, a tad arousing, making Eridan squirm away from his touch but he keeps at it. After a few minutes, he grows used to the rough fingers in his most sensitive place and even starts to enjoy it. Still, he can't say anything like that. 

"Do you always feel people up while they make breakfast for you?" 

"People don't normally stay and make breakfast for me." He doesn't know for sure but he's pretty sure Sollux is rolling his eyes at Eridan's behaviour, as if making breakfast is some foreign concept, "In fact, most people normally don't stick around until morning. We must have been really, really drunk last night because you don't seem to have fucked off." 

"If the head pain's anything to go by, I was more than just drunk; I was totally fucking wasted." He says, earning a small snicker, "Can you remember anything that happened last night?" 

"On Mondays, AA takes me out clubbing to make sure I get out of the house enough and don't just masturbate in the hive over those vocaloid dating simulators." Satisfied, Sollux's hands creep back up to toy with Eridan's dishevelled hair, tugging on it hard enough to make him wince; blackrom isn't something he's done since Vriska and he's out of practice, "You bought me drinks. Honey ones. We drunk a lot. And you clearly weren't sober enough to make it home okay, so I just took you home with me. You were plastered all over me from the minute we got in the door, you horny bastard. Don't you ever get laid, you needy fucker?" 

"I get laid plenty." Eridan scoffs, flipping the pancakes one last time and sliding them onto two kind of clean plates that he rescued from the sink, "I just happen to be affectionate, unlike certain losers that clearly don't even know what they're doing. Has anybody told you that you aren't meant to drool over your partner, Captor?" 

"I do not drool, I'm calling fricking bullshit on that." Sollux proclaims, sounding a little flustered to be called out on it- and he did drool, Eridan can remember wiping salvia off his chest mid-pailing because of it, "At least I don't cry post-orgasm, what the fuck was that about? You can't just pail with someone and then start crying on them. I thought the psionics had actually hurt you, you ass." He snatches his plate from Eridan with a little more force than he perhaps needed to and storms out of the room.

"I... I mean..." He can't think what the correct response is to that but it gets him thinking. It doesn't go unnoticed that Sollux had been worried about hurting him or that he was powerful enough TO hurt him. Eridan picks up his own plate and follows him into his gaming room, where he collapses next to him on the couch and lays his legs across the yellowblood's lap. There's a few protests but he doesn't shove him away, choosing to snarl and snap retorts at him instead. 

"Bulge sucking, bee flipping, fucking-" 

"Hey, Sol." Eridan interrupts him mid-rant, "Can I ask you something about your psionics?" 

"Shit eating, nook rubbing- what? Sure." Sollux looks puzzled to be cut off and resumes poking two pancakes into his mouth at once, "Hey, these are actually not as shitty as I thought they'd be. Nice job, Ampora." He speaks with his mouth full, spitting every time he comes across an 's' sound as usual, and spraying Eridan with pieces of pancakes. It's disgusting. 

"Keep your mouth shut when you're eating." He scolds, wondering how shitty Sollux's lusus was since they clearly hadn't taught him any manners, before remembering what it was that he was going to ask, "Your psionics... Are they the reason I feel so sore? I mean, I suppose my nook hurts because of your stupid mutant bulges-" Though, he did finally get the answer to the question of how many Sollux had: two, "-but the rest of my body, that's the psionics right?" 

"Yep." Sollux looks almost smug about the whole matter, "You were begging me to be rough so I complied. These pretty marks are mine too." He reaches over and trails his long fingers down Eridan's collarbones, touching the marks that have been left there. Eridan hadn't even noticed them but now, he realises that there's throbbing sore, red hickeys marking him as Sollux's. They're ugly looking, appropriately, just like the pissblood. He hopes that he'll be able to cover them easily because he does not need the next person he pails to see them. 

"Jesus, I said to play rough, not to injure me." Eridan scoffs, though he doesn't mind too much. Sure, he feels sore but it's almost nice to know that the ache in his back is from where Sollux pailed him on his broken mattress and that the soreness of the bite marks is from the landdweller claiming him as his own and that the pain of his nook is from where he had Sollux's two bulges squirming inside of him last night. He makes a note to never mention this to anybody because it sounds much too stupid but the thought makes him feel warm and fuzzy inside. How gross. 

"Well, you should have specified." Sollux shrugs, finishing up his pancakes and moving the plate onto the floor, instead of taking it through to the kitchen, "Hey, TV. Wake the fuck up." He addresses it and it turns on, announcing the voice recognition to be confirmed, and Sollux picks up a game controller. Without so much as a word to Eridan, he begins to play one of those millions of stupid battle games he owns and stares at the screen with glazed over eyes, obviously a thousand miles away. Eridan doesn't dare say a word and just shifts so that he can watch blankly, not really seeing the screen. He's too busy remembering the way he was pailed last night and wondering how this loser had done so well. 

It's not long before he grows cold, since Sollux's entire hive seems to lack any kind of decent heating, and unlike him, Eridan doesn't have a blanket on the floor beside him that he can pull over himself. Watching Sollux pull the blanket over himself, without so much as pulling his eyes away from the screen, he finds himself wondering just how long Sollux is accustomed to sitting here like this. And as he observes the chaos of the room, he comes to realise that it's organised so everything that he could need is within easy reach. Thinking back over what Sollux said about only leaving the house on Mondays, he wondered if the guy had some case of agoraphobia. This couldn't be healthy, to stay here all day like this. 

"I'm taking you out some time." Eridan announces to what might as well have been an empty room because Sollux doesn't even seem to react. His hands continue to work at mashing buttons on his controller, his eyes focusing on the screen still and he doesn't even shift under his blanket. He looks comfortable there like that and Eridan feels mildly jealous. He also thinks that he would like to be cuddled up close under that blanket with Sollux but he pushes that thought away quickly. 

"Hey Sol." He has to snap his fingers directly under his nose to even earn a wince. 

"What?" Sollux demands, not even sparing him a glance. 

"You. Me. Tomorrow. Science museum." Eridan summarises, knowing that any attempt to say any more than that is probably wasted. 

"Are you asking me out on a date, Ampora?" Sollux raises an single eyebrow at him, busy slaughtering some enemy on the screen, "I don't do dating, surely you must realise that. I stay here. I game. I eat. I sleep. I piss. Repeat. Sometimes I skip step four because I'm busy." For whatever reason, probably the black feelings, Eridan feels a wave of pity wash over him because Sollux seems so content with his sad, little life. He should not be content with living like this. He's definitely got to turn this around somehow, Eridan is determined to. 

"I don't care. You need to get out more, you're a fucking recluse." He doesn't bother with sugar coating it and it makes Sollux snicker in amusement, "I'm not asking you to fill any of my quadrants, Captor, I'm quite content with sleeping around instead. I don't like commitment any more than you do, since Fef and Vris." The memories are enough to make him wince, "I'm just gonna take you out on one date. After all, you probably wouldn't be able to handle my hot body more than twice anyway." 

"Yeah. Right." Sollux snorts, but he doesn't disagree, instead shifting and offering up half of his blanket. It's a surprisingly sweet gesture and as he moves to slide under his blanket and wrap his arms around Sollux, Eridan wonders if maybe he got this confused. Maybe it's red or pale feelings, not black. Then, Sollux nips at his neck and hisses under his breath and Eridan decides that this is some quadrant smearing fuck. Of course, even now, Sollux can't stay within the lines and stick to one quadrant. He has to be different. What an asshole. Eridan kisses and nips him back in return, happy to be receiving bites and nuzzles in turn as Sollux plays his stupid game. It's warm under the blanket with him. 

"Your feet are so cold." Sollux complains more than once. 

"I know." Eridan shrugs, "C'mere, you're so warm..." 

"That's right. I'm so fucking hot, aren't I, Ampora? I seem to remember you yelling that last night." 

"Yeah, well-" This is embarrassing enough that Eridan's ear fins flutter, turning purple at the tips. 

"Next time, I should gag you." Sollux seems to be kidding but the idea is pretty appealing. 

They stay that way for a long time, exchanging kisses and insults and teases and small talk in return, until Eridan decides that he's overstayed his welcome for long enough and slides out from under the blanket. He thanks Sollux for last night, pats him on the head, and heads for the door, expecting for the nerd to stay on the couch and maybe yell a half hearted goodbye after him. Again, Sollux surprises him. He pauses his game and gets to his feet, following Eridan through the hive to the front door. Sollux unlocks it for him before standing back and looking at him expectedly, like he can't think of anything to say. 

"Well, then." Eridan says.

"Well, then." Sollux replies, mockingly; then, he adds in a slightly kinder tone, "I'm glad your ass was here. You're nowhere near as bad at pailing as I thought you would have been." 

"Well, I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" Eridan shrugs, "Don't forget that I'm taking you out tomorrow. I'll be here around... Twelve, maybe? We can get lunch first." 

"Are you really going to take me to the science museum?" Sollux scoffs at him, "Lame!" 

"You're fucking lame, so I imagine it will be perfect." Eridan snaps at him, making him smirk. He steps out of the door, expecting that to be the end of it. He's probably going to never see Sollux again now; he never sees anybody after the first time and Sollux doesn't even like him. He hates him, in fact, mainly platonically. He sighs, ready to be rejected yet again, and to be shut out when he no doubt comes back tomorrow. He always comes back tomorrow, hoping for a second chance, but nobody ever takes him up on it. Eridan Ampora is forever alone, everybody knows that, especially him because Vriska told him enough times. 

Luckily, Sollux is always ready to surprise him. 

"So, I'll see you at twelve." Sollux says and Eridan spins around fast to see that he's still standing in the doorway. He thinks there might even be a hint of a smile on Sollux's face but that might just be a twisted smirk that looks like a smile in the light. 

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." He confirms, nodding to him. 

"And hey, Eridan." He's definitely smirking at him now, "Keep it up and you might find yourself in one of my quadrants." 

"As if I'd want that." Eridan spits at him, before turning and heading down the sidewalk in the direction of his hive. Normally, he'd insist on being driven home by whoever he'd been up all night with but today, he doesn't mind too much. He's got a lot to think about and he needs time and he doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of Sollux. Besides, he's vaguely aware of Sollux chuckling at him and his face burns purple with pride, that cute chuckle echoing in his ears for hours afterwards. 

He grins like that idiot, Pyrope, all the way home.


End file.
